in repairing one of the buildings, the masons removed the
supports of one of the books which are part of the architecture. The
book fell. It fell open, and out came the Hippogriff. Then they saw
something struggling under the next page and lifted it, and out came a
megatherium. So they shut the book and built it into the wall again.'

'But how did the megawhatsitsname and the Hippogriff come to be the
proper size?'

'Ah! that's one of the eleven mysteries. Some sages suppose that the
country gave itself a sort of shake and everything settled down into
the size it ought to be. I think myself that it's the air. The moment
you breathe this enchanted air you become the right size. _You_ did, you
know.'

'But why did they shut the book?'

'It was a book of beasts. Who knows what might have come out next? A
tiger perhaps. And ravening for its prey as likely as not.'

'I see,' said Philip; 'and of course beasts weren't really _needed_,
because of there being all the Noah's Ark ones.'

'Yes,' said the parrot, 'so they shut the book.'

'But the weather came out of books?'

'That was another book, a poetry book. It had only one cover, so
everything that was on the last page got out naturally. We got a lot out
of that page, rain and sun and sky and clouds, mountains, gardens,
roses, lilies, flowers in general, "Blossoms of delight" they were
called in the book and trees and the sea, and the desert and silver and
iron--as much of all of them as anybody could possibly want. There are
no limits to poets' imaginations, you know.'

'I see,' said Lucy, and took a large bite of cake. 'And where did you
come from, Polly, dear?'

'I,' said the parrot modestly, 'came out of the same book as the
Hippogriff. We were on the same page. My wings entitled me to associate
with him, of course, but I have sometimes thought they just put me in as
a contrast. My smallness, his greatness; my red and green, his white.'

'I see,' said Lucy again, 'and please will you tell us----'

'Enough of this,' said the parrot; 'business before pleasure. You have
begun the day with the pleasures of my conversation. You will have to
work very hard to pay for this privilege.'

So they washed up the breakfast things in warm water obligingly provided
by the camel.

'And now,' said the parrot, 'we must pack up and go on our way to
destroy the fear of the Dwellers by the Sea.'

'I wonder,' Brenda said to Max in an undertone, 'I wonder whether it
wouldn'